Hail all new media! With the advent of streaming internet video, multiple cable channels, cell phone technology, and good old broadcasting TV, the ratings are up in Beijing. NBC Universal is the big winner as its monetary bets have paid off with the huge success from these current Chinese Olympics.
Yes, everyone is getting into the Olympic spirit. Fans can get total wall to wall coverage of their favorite sport on NBC's Olympic website. Boxing, baseball, softball, tennis, and badminton among others are being watched over on MSNBC, Bravo, USA, and CNBC. In fact, the ratings for MSNBC and CNBC are literally through the roof (although that would not take that much for the two low rated channels).
So, is this a new moment in the way America views the premier sporting event that comes our way once every four years? No! That is right. Despite all the newfangled ways to catch up on the Olympics, the story lines being presented are no different from any other Olympics.
-Primetime: NBC is still devoting what it considers the most sexiest of sports, to the most watched channel and time slots. You won't see much bicycle racing or equestrian events after the magic 8 pm start. This is holy ground and the place where NBC hopes to recoup all the billions it has laid out for the Olympics.
-The Game Plan: No matter what is taking place around the world, within China, or in the games themselves, NBC is basically creating a plot line that must be adhered to. The story aspects include:
-Water (and lots of it) will be featured: Hulky male swimmers and athletic females in a translucent water cube are always a big sale. Add in American dominance in swimming and of course, hero of the hour, Micheal Phelps, and you have swimming and lots of it
-Gymnastics: Stretch the gymnastic meets out to four separate days each for men and women and half the Olympics will feature this event that is also a big draw. Add in a controversy over the age of the Chinese team participants and two over the top perky American girls, and you have hit a ratings bonanza.
-Beach Volleyball: Screw the traditional team volleyball. Place two apiece, muscular tanned male teams and bikini clad Amazon women, and you have a good thirty or so minute filler between the two main events mentioned above.
-The Today Show: Proof positive that one would not know whether we were watching Athens, Barcelona, or any other games. Do not interview winning athletes from other countries. Stoke the flames of nationalism. Disregard the gold medal efforts of stars such as China's Yang Wei who overcame his own Olympic problems to be crowned this year's overall men's champion in gymnastics. Instead, have an incredibly narrow discussion on Thursday morning's show with Mary Lou Retton, Tim Daggett and Elsie Schlegel who only talked about American chances in the overall female category and did not even know the names of the Chinese competitors.
-NBC Nightly News: Live from Beijing, respect NBC anchor Brian Williams has been reduced to a shrill for the corporate good. One lead story each night (usually on the Russia-Georgia conflict) is followed by over twenty more minutes of pure Olympic news coverage. Yes, a few stories are warranted but what happened to our own USA-Iraq conflict and the so called important presidential race.
-Georgia vs. Russia: Finally, to show that they do put things in context, NBC showed how a beach volleyball match pitting two females each from Russia and Georgia were able to put things off and compete in a somewhat friendly manner. Of course what was not emphasized was that both of Georgia's players were actually rentals from Brazil who had no relatives in the small nation and were going back to Brazil as soon as the Olympics were over.
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